This invention relates to an apparatus for covering the bed of a pickup truck with a tent, thereby making the truck suitable for camping outdoors. In particular, the present invention is intended to provide a camping tent for those pickup trucks sold with, or modified to have, a rigid cover over the bed, which cover can be raised to allow access to the bed.
Many pickup trucks are sold with rigid covers installed over their beds. Such covers have the obvious advantages of protecting objects stored in the bed from weather or from theft. Many truck owners install such covers after purchasing their trucks. Typically, the rigid covers are hinged at the end nearest the cab of the truck, so that the other end may be raised and held in that position, usually with gas cylinders or the like.
The use of tents with pickup trucks is well known in the prior art. It is natural that truck owners would wish to use their trucks for camping. However, the prior art devices have not solved the combined problems of achieving ease of assembly, low cost, and minimum modifications to the vehicle. For example, Mangino (U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,729) discloses a tent which is formed from a folding frame over the open bed of a pickup truck. However, the Mangino device is relatively complex mechanically, and it does not allow full access to the bed of the truck unless it is erected or removed. Moore (U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,633) discloses a pickup truck camper shell constructed in sections of rigid material. Moore provides the advantage of a shell which can remain on the truck while it is driven in daily use, but the Moore shell would be much more expensive to produce than the present invention. Again, the Moore shell is designed to fit over the open bed of a truck, not to take advantage of existing covers, as does the present invention.
The closest known prior art to the present invention is that disclosed by Borchers (U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,390). Borchers discloses a specially-fabricated hinged cover for the bed of a pickup truck. The cover has two sections, which are hinged together transversely, and lockable in that position. The tent portion of the Borchers cover is stored in the cover and unfolded to form a tent. The Borchers device includes the special cover, cover support means, and the tent itself. The present invention takes advantage of already-installed rigid covers, and accomplishes the solution aimed at by Borchers with less mechanical complexity.